Happy Birthday, ECLA!

And what a year it has been! Since our launch, we welcomed established, New York based agent Linda Epstein, giving us a bi-coastal presence, and promoted agency assistant Lindsay Mealing to Junior Agent.

But wait… there’s more!

Along with Linda’s existing client list (who were all welcomed to ECLA!), she signed new clients Tracy Banghart (writing PB & YA) and Jenna Gavigan (writing PB & MG).

Mandy Hubbard, agency founder, brought along her list of established authors and signed a few new clients as well, including Shyla Stokes (Contemporary YA) and Tara Carter, whose debut has already sold to Macmillan (Feiwel and Friends) for publication in 2018.

Onto the deals! In our first year, ECLA sold the following books:

Lisa Rosinsky’s debut, INEVITABLE AND ONLY, a realistic contemporary YA, to Rebecca Davis at Boyds Mills Press. It’s the story of sophomore Acadia Greenfield, whose world gets turned upside down when her father brings home a daughter the exact age as Acadia, whom he didn’t know he had, and this half-sister seems to be replacing Acadia at home, at school, and in the heart of her long-time crush. Publication is planned for spring 2018.

Miriam McNamara’s debut, a LGBTQ young adult historical fiction, The Unbinding of Mary Reade. It’s based on the true story of a girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to sail with the infamous pirates Anne Bonny and “Calico” Jack Rackham. Publication is slated for fall 2017.

In a mid-six-figures deal, Brigid Kemmerer’s A CURSE DARK AND LONELY, in which a prince is cursed to relive the autumn of his eighteenth year after spurning the wrong woman, until he can convince another to love him; when the commander of his guard abducts a tough-as-nails teen from our world, she is pulled into his cursed land…and the only way out is to fall in love, to Bloomsbury

Cyn Balog’s ALONE, pitched as The Shining for teens, in which a girl and her family are isolated in a crumbling old mansion for the winter–until a group of stranded teens arrive seeking shelter from a snow storm, and what looked like sanctuary unravels into something far more sinister, to Sourcebooks

Dawn Ius’s third book, LIZZIE, a contemporary retelling of the Lizzie Borden hatchet murders, in which Lizzie is a modern day teen working for her tyrannical parents at the family’s bed and breakfast, and when a new maid arrives Lizzie finds herself falling in love–until her parents try to tear them apart, sparking Lizzie’s descent into madness, to Pulse (Simon & Schuster)

Sarah Henson’s debut, DEVILS WITHIN, pitched as American History X for teens, in which a teen flees the white supremacist compound where he grew up and struggles to overcome the racist beliefs he was taught since birth, all while hiding from the dangerous men who want him dead, to Sky Pony

JC Davis’s debut CHEESUS WAS HERE, in which a cynical girl discovers the imprint of Jesus on a babybel cheesewheel, and while the entire town believes in the series of miracles that follow, she’s determined to prove it’s all a big fraud, because if miracles existed her little sister would still be alive, to Sky Pony

T. E. Carter’s debut I STOP SOMEWHERE, pitched as ALL THE RAGE meets THE LOVELY BONES, about a teen girl trapped between life and death in the wake of a vicious assault, who must watch as the town–and her father–searches for her, to Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan).

Two picture books which will be announced when illustrators have been attached to them (at Random House and Bloomsbury)

Two MG novels to Knopf (announcement upon finalization of the title(s)

Six figure deals with Harper and Hyperion (announcements to come).

Foreign rights sales for multiple titles across the globe, including sales to the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, and beyond!

And finally, we hosted ECLA’s first client retreat in Sequim, WA, and welcomed fifteen of our clients to #CampECLA, where we talked shop, met one on one with clients, and even made time for a hike in an old growth forest. Marshmallows were roasted, books were traded, and lifelong friends were made. To cap it all off, we hosted a Sunset Cruise for our clients on the waters of the Puget Sound, and included our foreign rights specialist, Taryn Fagerness, who happily shared her extensive knowledge about foreign rights territories around the world.

Here are a few pictures from our retreat– we swear we got some work done, too!